Silicone has gained major attention in the pressure sensitive adhesive industry as a release coating due to its unique surface properties and viscoelastic characteristics. However, owing to the cost associated with silicone, industries also seek cost-effective alternatives to silicone. Traditional methods of reducing the cost of a release coating have focused on lowering of silicone coat weight and/or lowering of platinum catalyst content which is used as an additional curing system in silicone release coatings. An extra amount of platinum catalyst is generally used in silicone release coating formulations as the platinum catalyst can become deactivated. However, platinum is relatively expensive and therefore the total cost of a release coating formulation can significantly increase due to high amounts of platinum. Nevertheless, decreasing concentration of platinum in such formulations has proved challenging in the past. Low amounts of platinum can negatively affect the curing speed and release properties due to incomplete curing.
Therefore, in view of the foregoing, a need exists particularly in the pressure sensitive label application field, for a cost effective release coating formulation.